From baby oil to Olympic ski buff
Tongan flagbearer at Rio in icy challenge
No account of the Rio Olympics’ opening ceremony could be complete without the Tongan flagbearer, who strode into the Maracana slathered in enough baby oil to glue up a Waikato cow.
Yes, Pita Taufatofua had the mien of a man who looked in the mirror of a morning and was not wholly displeased with what he saw. Far be it from anyone to presume, though, that he was content with just five minutes of fame. For no sooner did he represent Tonga in taekwondo in 2016 than he decided to have a tilt at this year’s Winter Olympics starting this week in PyeongChang, South Korea — as a cross-country skier.
Quite apart from Polynesia’s conspicuous absence of snow-capped mountains proving a hindrance, Taufatofua also had a void of alpine sports experience for which he compensated by strapping two wooden planks to his legs and running up sandhills. Now, remarkably, he has qualified through a last-ditch race after all six previous attempts failed.
“After Rio, I needed a new challenge,” he said. “Could I do a new sport, the hardest I could think of, in a year?”
It turned out that he could, by the most slender of margins. Having shuttled from one sub-Arctic venue to the next, staying only in cheap hostels and subsisting on a diet of tuna and pasta, he fulfilled his quest with one final push in the snowy wastes of northern Iceland.
“The closest I had come to succeeding was within 30 points. But this time, I blew it out of the water. It was the best snow race I have ever done.”
Tonga’s Winter Olympic heritage does not run deep. The Pacific archipelago’s only previous representative was Fuahea Semi, who finished 32nd in men’s luge at Sochi 2014 as part of a marketing stunt with a German underwear brand, having changed his name to Bruno Banani.
Taufatofua lacks the money for anything other than a single pair of skis, but remains undaunted.
A restless soul, he has still not ruled out learning a third different sport in time for the next summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. In taekwondo two years ago, he was thrashed 16-1 in his opening bout.
Taufatofua is, at least, being more pragmatic in his choice of dress for Friday night’s opening ceremony, where the temperatures have dipped to -20C.
“I want still to be alive for my race,” he said, with a smile. “It’s going to be freezing, so I will be keeping nice and warm.”